Kingston 13, Milford 10: A change of plan for Post 59 heading into state final

Thursday

Jul 31, 2014 at 11:36 PMJul 31, 2014 at 11:39 PM

By Kevin J. StoneDaily News correspondent

SUDBURY – On the surface, it appeared as if the Milford Post 59 team had little to play for when it faced Kingston in its fourth game at the American Legion state tournament back at Sudbury's Feeley Field on Thursday night.

But that was far from the truth.

With Milford already locking up a berth in the state finals set for Friday, a win against Post 387 on Thursday night would mean Milford would have two chances to win the state championship. A loss would mean a winner-take-all game on Friday, with the state champion heading to the Northeast Regionals in Connecticut next weekend.

Kingston entered with one loss in the double-elimination tournament, and Post 59 knew it would have to match Post 397's desperation.

In the end, Milford battled back from a seven-run deficit, but fell in a wild 13-10 game.

The loss now means that Post 59 (24-9) will play a winner take-all-state title game against either Kingston or Newburyport on Friday night (7:30 p.m.). Those two teams will play at 4:30 to decide Milford's opponent.

"These kids have been resilient all year and they were again tonight, battling back," said Milford manager Steve DiVitto. "We had a chance to make that come back and fell a bit short. These kids will come back with a great mind set ready to win a baseball game tomorrow."

On Wednesday night, Milford used a huge defensive play from Matt Decina and Andy McMillan to spark it and ultimately win the game. On Thursday night, it was more of the same from Post 59 in the first inning.

With Cam Cossette on the hill and in the middle of an early two-on-with-one-out jam, Decina fielded a single in left off the bat of Sam Ballerini while Josh O'Neil turned at third and headed for home. Decina gunned him down at the plate, saving the run. Cossette followed that up with a strike out to end the threat.

Post 59 quickly used that momentum, plating two in the bottom of the first. Decina led off and ripped the first pitch he saw back up the middle for a single. Andrew McMillan followed that up with a walk. Dan Mantoni popped out to short, bringing up Kevin Martinis.

A wild pitch and huge lack of communication during his at bat allowed Decina to score all the way from second while McMillan went to third. Martinis was hit by a pitch, bringing up Joe White who made it 2-0 with a sacrifice fly to left.

Cossette cruised into the fifth inning, but that's when Post 59 suffered its first bad break and bad inning of the tournament.

With runners at second and third and one out after a sacrifice bunt, O'Neil ripped a ball towards short. It took an add hop, directly into the face of Mantoni and ricocheted into left field, allowing two runs to score and tie the game at 2-2.

Moments later, the biggest blow to Milford thus far in the tournament came in the form of a three-run home run from Kingston's Adam Gay to make it 5-2. A single and an error followed that and Cossette was pulled in favor of Kevin Lynch. A wild pitch from Lynch allowed another run to score before a ground out ended the inning, but the damage was done.

Things continued to snowball for Milford in the top of the sixth as two singles and two throwing errors led to three more runs and a 9-2 lead for Kingston.

"Cam pitched well," said DiVitto. "We just got a few bad breaks and they capitalized."

Post 59 responded in the bottom of the sixth with two runs, cutting it to 9-4 on an RBI ground ball to short from Kevin Lynch that was booted and an RBI fielder's choice from Decina. It was quickly erased though as Post 387 grabbed both runs back in the top of the seventh to reclaim its seven-run lead.

In the bottom half, Mantoni briefly put a little life back in the large Milford contingent on hand, blasting a lead off solo home run to left field, making it 11-5.

Post 59 made things extremely interesting in the bottom of the eighth, plating four runs to cut the deficit to 11-9.

After pitching a scoreless top of the eighth, Blake Hill led off with a first pitch solo homer to right. A bases loaded RBI single from Mantoni and a two-run single from Joe White left Milford down two heading to the ninth.

Unfortunately for Post 59, O'Neil ripped a two-out, two-run single back up the middle off McMillan who came on in relief in the top of the ninth, making it 13-9. McMillan had a one-out RBI fielder's choice in the ninth to make it 13-10, bringing Mantoni to the plate as the tying run, but he popped out to first to end it.

Like a year ago, Post 59 will have one game to win a state title, and that's fine with them.

"These kids have earned the right to play for a state title with their play this week, and they'll be ready to go," assured DiVitto.

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